This invention relates to a device for use in learning, practising, and perfecting the tennis serve. More particularly, the invention embraces a device comprising a flexible non-elastic tether and a weighted end. In use, the device is swung utilizing the motion associated with the exaggerated throwing of a baseball. The weight at the end of the tether forces the smooth, continuous follow-through motion required in a tennis serve.
Tennis is a game which requires fluidity of motion and an easy, simple, and a rhythmic swing that flows through all strokes of the game. These characteristics are especially important in the tennis serve. The service, therefore, must be natural, easygoing, smooth, accurate, steady, and simple. Since it is the opening stroke of every point, it determines whether the server is going to be in a commanding or a defending position. In an average tennis match, approximately 50 percent of all points are won by the serve. It is important that a beginner to tennis gain confidence. For complete confidence, it is necessary that the beginner have confidence in his serve.
Numerous books and articles are available directed to learning, practising, and perfecting one's tennis game. Uniformly, these books and articles recognize the above noted requirements of the serve and that the serve is the most difficult part of the tennis game for a beginner to learn and for advanced players to master. It has been said that while most "good" amateur players can hit an adequate forehand and backhand, and volley reasonably well, the disparity between their serve and that of the professional player is major. Notoriously, amateurs will hit their first serve with all their might--into the net; they will then be required, to avoid a double fault, to dish-up a soft second serve that anyone can handle. This loses points and undermines the confidence of the player, further destroying the effectiveness of his game.
Although the difficulty of the serve is uniformly recognized by tennis instructors, no effective, simple method has been devised to permit the beginner and amateur to learn and master the serve.